A total of 120 cases of Omicron variant of the novel Coronavirus were detected among randomly selected samples collected during December and January in Tripura.
However, Health Department said there is nothing to worry about as the positivity rate is coming down and has come down to less than 1 percent today.
Total 231 samples were sent for Whole Genome Sequencing in two batches to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBG), Kalyani.
Among those samples, 120 samples were confirmed as Omicron variants, Health Department sources said. These samples also included six samples collected during the last week of December.
The health department had sent 69 samples between January 1 to 15 and 162 samples collected during January 16 to 31 respectively to the NIBG, Kalyani.
Total eight swab samples of the 69 samples were tested positive for Omicron variant while 112 samples were found to be Omicron positive among the 162 swab samples.
When contacted, State Surveillance Officer Dr. Deep Kumar Debbarma said the Covid situation is normal now; there is no need to worry. He said, the Covid positivity rate came down to 0.35 percent on Wednesday.
The West Tripura district reported the highest 76 Omicron cases, followed by Sepahijala with 14 cases, 10 cases in South Tripura, six cases in Khowai, five each in Unakoti and North Tripura and Gomati reported 4 cases. No Omicron case was detected in Dhalai district.
Meanwhile, more 99 samples were sent for Whole Genome Sequencing on February 15 last and the results were yet to be received.
